Recent reviews by Adanos

Compelling journey into the lives of an unusual yet relatable family. Their story is one of incredible loss, but the level of emotional depth with which it is told makes it a memorable and profound experience. As far as sentimental story-driven games about the human experience go this is one of best.

Fun and imaginative game that uses Inception-like design to create some pretty mind-bending puzzles. Though the gameplay is not particularly challenging, the world is consistently weird and compelling and expects you to problem solve in ways you likely have not done so before.

Pacific Drive is an exciting Sci-Fi survival adventure with a satisfying gameplay loop. The designers have crafted a somewhat spooky but mostly quirky world where you will do a lot of driving, gathering, and crafting in roughly that order. Some reviewers have said that the gameplay becomes a bit of a grind, but I easily sunk 50+ hours in without having my interest wane.

The initial learning curve of crafting is a little steep, but the overall difficulty isn't very punishing. There are also several difficulty and realism settings you can adjust to your preferences. The gameplay itself is stable, polished, and satisfying. Using a gamepad went pretty smoothly, but there are persistently wonky menu scrolling issues.

The story is told primarily via radio dialogue (you never actually meet anyone face to face) and it's all pretty interesting, but they do have a habit of talking at you in the middle of a run when you're easily distracted. As a resident of the Pacific Northwest myself I enjoyed the regional references and appreciated their collaboration with local Seattle bands to create their diverse radio soundtrack.

I can see how some people might find the resource gathering and roguelite level progression tedious, but I strongly recommend giving this one a try.

I hadn't played a game quite like this before and I really enjoyed the novelty of a gotta catch 'em all eldritch sea creatures adventure. The general progression of the game is satisfying and as someone who enjoys collecting things and completing encyclopedias I felt right at home in Dredge. That said, I do see some room for improvement.

There is minimal story going on here, but in a way that might be an intentional nod to the Lovecraftian style of 'show don't tell'. Still, the ending has a nice twist that I wasn't expecting and overall I was satisfied. Where it is lacking slightly is in side quests, which are few and mostly "catch this and bring it here" in nature. The fishing mechanic itself could use more diversification and added challenge considering how integral it is to the gameplay. It gets a bit repetitive after a while.

I also think paranoia could have been utilized and incentivized more creatively. Generally it's presented as a liability, but some of the game's coolest visual effects and encounters happen when the meter is high. Adding quests and encounters that require high paranoia, aberrations that only appear while the meter is full, and perhaps the ability to hunt some of the terrors it attracts would be cool as well. The creep-factor definitely exists in Dredge, but I feel like they could have played to this strength even more.

Upgrading your boat is fun but still left me wishing there were more ways to customize. Also, being able to buy infinitely restocked upgrade items from the vendor makes upgrading too fast and easy. Money feels scarce at first, but will quickly cease being of any concern if you're fishing as much as they seem to expect you to be. Getting these upgrade items exclusively as quest rewards or from exploring would improve the pacing of progression. Given how small the map is, it would also be helpful if the DLC were better integrated with the main quest line.

I strongly recommend giving Dredge a try if you're a horror-lite fan with a passion for collecting. An impressive first release!

Like many who came to try Grim Dawn I was a big Diablo II fan back in the day. Diablo III lacked the grim atmosphere and some of the magic that the other two had and I lost interest pretty quickly. People have expressed similar sentiments in the reviews, so I gave Grim Dawn a shot. Long story short, it wasn't for me, and I'm not here to bash the game but to put out a cautionary word for those who might be coming in with similar expectations.

Now, I am not a very technical player (first red flag) and I don't like reading guides or experimenting much with builds. There's no denying that there is a lot of freedom given to you in regard to combining skill trees, skill enhancements, and item skills. It is also true that this game makes numerous quality of life changes that I wish had been in its spiritual predecessors (loot filters, skill reset, etc.). But despite these improvements I found the gameplay in Grim Dawn boring. I played as a shaman and migrated towards the passive skills because I am lazy and prefer not to have to use more buttons to get the job done, and it got old fast. This is a game where you get out what you put in, and they expect you to want to experiment. So, if you enjoy doing that this game could be for you.

Another way I found Grim Dawn to be lacking is in its shock and awe. Diablo II's epic cinematics, comprehensive voice acting, and intense action effects + death animations added a great deal of thrill and reward that is largely missing here. Now, I know that not everyone has Blizzard's budget, and the overall quality of Grim Dawn's design is good, but there are so many unvoiced lines and so little theatrical plot development that I found it hard to get immersed in the story. There is plenty of written dialogue and lore, so if you don't mind a bit of reading and can do without much audio/visual spectacle this might be up your alley.

There are a ton of people who absolutely love this game, and I can imagine why. For those who loved Diablo II strategically and wanted more freedom and more choices you will probably love it. If you're like me and enjoy a more guided, linear approach without having to think too hard and want cool cinematics and memorable voice acting you will likely be disappointed.

This is a great game that offers a lot more than I had expected. It's essentially several mini games repeated in a cycle, but they work so well together that it feels like one harmonious machine. Ok, there are two main facets of gameplay - survival-based resource gathering and restaurant ops management - but for me the beauty of it was that by the time I was feeling ready to get out of the water I'd be excited to start raking in sales and by the time I was done attending to the daily tasks of a restaurateur I was ready to start exploring again.

For a game so seemingly focused on this simple process of supply and demand you would expect the story to be half-baked, but they deliver a pretty good story line that adds its own sense of urgency to the progression. The characters are largely one dimensional but likable and their interactions can be creative and entertaining. There are standard fare side quests to add more value to dives and even the mini games have mini games. The ending credits are even a mini game, and it's kinda challenging! The sheer amount of content and different themes they pack in is pretty amazing. The soundtrack is really good as well.

I'm also impressed by how the game respects the player's time. Dives can be as long or as short as desired and it's totally fine to ignore (or fail) special events because you'll be able to re-attempt them later. There are some rogue-like elements to the dives, which means if you "die" you lose just about everything you picked up along the way, but seeing as how dives rarely last longer than 15 min you wont be pulling your hair out. They also give you a checkpoint for each boss encounter so you don't have to worry about getting caught off guard with a full inventory. In other words, this is a very casual-friendly game with just enough tension to keep you pretty well hooked.

If you enjoyed the first game you'll get more of the same: well-tuned combat, good level design, and cool art dripping with creepy Catholic symbolism. The story gets some extra clarity but much of it is still pretty esoteric. There are now multiple weapons to use that are each effective as well as necessary to progress.

The difficulty was spot on for me with bosses taking a few attempts to clear - until the penultimate fight, which is a bit too hard in my opinion. Crisanta was tough, but this guy is kind of extreme. I was able to look up an effective strategy against him online, but It would be nice if they added some sort of difficulty setting. They also really need to allow you to skip the monologue you have to sit through before each attempt.

Cutscene art style has changed quite a bit and become more "anime", which is kind of jarring compared to the otherwise pixelated style. The game still doesn't have borderless windowed support and minimizing out of full-screen can be buggy. Nothing too bad though, and I'm looking forward to future DLC.

Pretty fun platformer that may not have a lot of gameplay complexity but has a distinctively beautiful art style that changes as it reflects the progression of the story. The watercolor and penciled style was refreshingly unusual to see in this medium.

A few of the achievements are almost inappropriately tricky/unclear to figure out despite how comparably simple and linear the progression is, but that's not a major criticism.

Clunky game with weird controls and inventory management. Not being able to drop (or share) items with other players is inconvenient and item storage is arbitrarily restricted. The crafting system seems imaginative, but not very intuitive. No durability for improvised weapons is a strange choice for a survival game. Attack animations aren't great and the gameplay just isn't very enjoyable.

Maybe the AI gets sharper later on, but enemies are erratic and hesitant to engage. This makes them kind of derpy which takes away from the scare factor.

It feels like this game never really left early access and, satisfied with the overwhelmingly positive reviews, the devs didn't bother making any more improvements, instead moving right along to their next game. It doesn't help that many of its positive reviews are attention-seeking nonsense, suggesting that its success may be due in part to its apparent meme-worthiness.

This is a very pretty game that's simple and relaxing to play. There are some puzzles that aren't too tricky to solve and a handful of abilities to unlock along the way. The fox is cute and its unlockable skins are charming.

Map progression is relatively linear, but there is a lot of running around (please make sprint toggleable) and maps are deceptively large considering how few collectibles there are. The final map felt particularly excessive in size and was a bit tiring to get through.

There are murals here and there that offer little glimpses into what's amiss in the world, but while the symbolism is easy to grasp I found the story to be a bit too vague to clearly understand. Things conclude beautifully, and overall I enjoyed the atmosphere created by the visuals and the music.

Those who like Ori's beautiful art and themes will enjoy SotN, and playing as a fox reminds me a bit of Stray. Just be prepared for little action and a lot of walking.